Once a Thief, Always a Thief
by Aran
Summary: A story about Jill, her father Dick Valentine, (the dude from the RE books :p) and Jill's first true heisting.
1. Chapter 1

Once a Thief, Always a Thief  
  
Note: I never....NEVER saw anyone do this in a fanfic so.....I AM GOING TO DO IT!  
  
Summary: The days of Jill and Dick Valentine's thieving. (I'm so cheap with reviews ^_^)  
  
"Jill, you need to apply more pressure with the torque when you scrub the lock. Pull back a little bit. No..not pull it out, pull it back! Oh..just start over again", a disgruntled man spoke from behind Jill Valentine.  
  
She was sixteen years of age now, and cleaning up her ability on picking certain locks. Jill hated scrubbing locks, it rarely ever worked on the more important doors in a building. Well, that is when she was trying to do it. Her father could make anything work like magic.  
  
"You must focus and imagine what is going on inside of the lock, not what is going on outside of it. Concentrate on the pins and memorize them by feeling. And for the love of God, don't be afraid to use the other picks."  
  
"Yes Dick, I know", Jill answered in a rush.  
  
Click!  
  
The door was unlocked at last and Jill kicked it open, "There!"  
  
"Took you long enough", Dick chided.  
  
"Still, it's open damnit!" Jill growled back.  
  
"Good job."  
  
Dick leaned down a bit and kissed his daughter upon the forehead and bent over to gather up the picks Jill had tossed about when trying to unlock the basement door. She always practiced on doors in their house, it was the safest and most legal way for her to learn lock picking skills and tricks.  
  
A smile now spread across Jill's face and she skipped out of the room while giggling softly. She often did this on purpose to annoy her father ever since he had pointed out that she, for a female, wasn't very girly or feminine at all.  
  
Off in another room of the house a telephone chimed. Dick sighed and stood back up with the picks in hand and strode toward the phone, before..  
  
"Watch out!" Jill slid quickly in front of him and jumped at the telephone, "hello?!"  
  
Her face was lit up in eagerness until it fell quickly, "Oh yeah..hang on."  
  
"Who is it?"  
  
"One of your moronic friend's son", Jill said, glaring up into her father's blue eyes.  
  
"I see..", Dick took the phone from her and pressed it to his ear, "yes?"  
  
"Hi!" Another teenager chirped on the other line.  
  
'Can't stand teenagers..', Dick thought bitterly.  
  
"What is it Steve?"  
  
"My old man told me to ring you up! Said he's expecting to see you at 16:00", Steve replied.  
  
Dick snapped his wrist up quickly as he realized he had lost track of time. No watch on his wrist. He tried to wave at Jill who was now plopped down on the couch across the room. She stared blankly at the television set which was now featuring a sale on cars, yet somehow they had managed to stuff in the half naked, big breasted women that Jill envied so dearly.  
  
"Jill! Jill!" Dick said in a high whisper. Steve was yapping on the other line about Hockey scores and what not.  
  
"Yes?" Jill asked, still glaring at the TV.  
  
"Time?"  
  
"3:48."  
  
"Damnit..yeah, alright Steve..uh huh..bye", Dick slammed the phone back into it's place and ran his hands through his slicked back hair and grumbled, "running late again.."  
  
"Hey..hey..HEY!"  
  
"What Jill?"  
  
"You aren't going to leave me here are you? I mean, I want to get involved in a bigger heist you know", Jill said in a slightly pleading tone.  
  
"No, you're too..don't give me those eyes! You know I can't stand that!" Dick frowned at Jill's pitiful, sparkling eyes. They resembled his without the feminine touch. Valentine eyes. Every Valentine had or has the blue eyes.  
  
"You always said that one day soon you would take me out to do this, and you know I want this very badly."  
  
"Fine, but this is just the meeting. No peep of any kind should come from you, understand?" Dick ordered with a finger pointed at her.  
  
"Yes sir", she nodded quickly.  
  
Dick turned on his heel and snatched up a chain of keys lying on the table. With that he walked out of the house, daughter practically on his hip, and opened the door to his car. Jill followed in on the other side and sat down with a long sigh. Dick stared at her for a moment.  
  
"What?" she asked after awhile.  
  
"I hope you don't go driving around without a seatbelt on at least", Dick said while cocking an eye brow at her.  
  
"Oh! Sorry..", a click could be heard as she quickly jammed the seatbelt together, "there, let's go already."  
  
Dick pulled the car out of the driveway. (yes I know..that doesn't sound right) They were off now to meet up with Steve's father and hopefully a good deal t work with. 


	2. Chapter 2

Note: Hehe, ok, chapter 2, please enjoy. R & R too! PLEASE DAMNIT!  
  
Wind swept by and caught Jill's hair as her father accelerated speed. They were obviously over the speed limit, but Dick never had much of a mind for the law anyway.  
  
Jill snapped her hand up to her face, snatched the hair blowing in the way, and relocated it to behind her ears. As she was making the quick adjustment she caught sight of a stout, balding man in his yard, with a handful of keys on a single small ring. He was unlocking the driver's door to a white, rusting pickup truck. Jill pictured the key sliding into the lock and fixing the pins into place with ease and no struggle. How simple the lock to that truck gave.  
  
Just a few days ago, Jill had taken time to pick the locks in her house for practice. When she got to the attic door, she had a few problems occur. One of the pins had caught into the side of the hulk (a bad thing). In frustration and hardly any logical thought, Jill quickly applied all her strength on her torque wrench, and an aggravating crunch could be heard from within the lock itself. Naturally, Jill quickly tried the key in the lock to see if it still worked, but as she placed into place, the key jammed and became irremovable halfway through.  
  
A feeling of dread and pure stupidity had fallen over Jill as she stood dumbstruck and staring at the small key sticking out of the metal knob. She soon went downstairs to explain to her father what had happened. Dick was usually a calm man, but when she finished the story he truly lost it.  
  
After the incident, Dick had grounded her from almost everything and gave her a long lecture on "breaking things in HIS house". Of course he had exaggerated the part where he paid for everything she got to break, and then decided it would only be right to take the cash needed for a replacement door knob out of Jill's pocket money.  
  
"Jilly, will you pay attention for a second?" Dick scolded, not entirely mad though.  
  
"Huh? Oh, sorry", she turned to look at her father now.  
  
"Now listen up, Gray isn't a friendly figure, so try not to say anything below average intelligence. Oh, and avoid feminist remarks."  
  
"Feminist? I've never said or done or shown any bit of feminism in my entire life", Jill snapped, then added when she saw Dick's skeptical expression, "of course, not unless it was called for."  
  
Dick stared down at her for a brief moment, and suppressed a smile by continuing on with his rules, "Not everyone enjoys being analyzed so simply with the feminine outlook such as yours. Especially Gray. See he's a bit of a sexist, and trust me...any of your opinions-you being a woman-they'll all appear feminist and tainted with...with...well you get the idea", Dick shrugged.  
  
"What? Did his mother butt-fuck him with a strap on when he was a kid and say 'Woman's rights, dear' or something?" Jill asked in agitation. She wasn't quite thrilled right now with the idea of working with what could end up being another narcissistic asshole.  
  
"Please don't talk like that", Dick said simply.  
  
The car was beginning to slow down as they entered a rather small parking lot. As soon as a spot was found, and the car halted, both Jill and her father stepped out of the car, and quickly strode out toward the sidewalk with one another.  
  
"There he is", Dick pointed over to a dark haired man wearing an even darker expression on his rigid face.  
  
Jill nodded in response, and followed close behind Dick as they made they're way to the park table where Gray was seated. He seemed to be waiting quite impatiently.  
  
"You're late Valentine. That isn't like you to leave people waiting like-", Gray stopped short, eyeing Jill almost suspiciously once she stepped into view. His stern look didn't waver a moment as he looked her up and down, rudely, and spoke quickly in a snobbier tone.  
  
"Didn't know you had a girlfriend coming along, Dick."  
  
Jill glared quickly from Gray to her father, and held back the urge to let out a doggish grunt.  
  
"Ha! No, no! This is my daughter, Jill Valentine", Dick winked and patted Jill on the back before finally sitting down across from Gray. Jill followed.  
  
"Why is she here?" Gray asked. Insisting on continuing his display of obvious hatred and rudeness for the young, petite girl.  
  
"I wanted her to learn some bit. She's following me in my foot steps you do know", Dick smiled as if he was unaware of the snotty attitude Gray gave. Jill cringed now.  
  
"I see", Gray squinted slightly in Jill's directions, as if still summing her up.  
  
"Plans?" Dick motioned with a hand.  
  
"Ah right, Rodger will be gone for the weekend on some business trip, so I believe you're best shots on the score will be then", Gray said in monotone, "I have the works on his security system and have plans to be cutting his power off for you to slip in. No problem at all."  
  
"Why are we stealing from a specific person?" Jill interrupted, then turned to Dick, "I thought you only rob strangers."  
  
"There's no room for people who, thought", Gray said slyly, and emphasized the word 'thought'.  
  
Jill sharpened her frown at Gray and imagined a gory way to kill him.  
  
Dick merely chuckled, "True...See Jill. Rodger is an exception for us."  
  
"Yes, Rodger cheep skated some friends of ours", Gray continued.  
  
'Friends?' Jill thought to herself. She didn't know her father to be the type to work with others like a pack of thugs, but then again, she never asked him about it before.  
  
"And now we're going to get what was rightfully ours", Dick winked.  
  
"Alright now listen good. I work for the electric company as a technician", Gray spoke, "quite a useful job. I'll be down there to 'fix the transformer'. I'll have the power cut off down the whole block at ten o'clock sharp", Gray smiled in finish.  
  
Jill noted how odd Gray looked while he was smiling.  
  
"Try not to be late", Gray added more sharply.  
  
"No chance of it at all", Dick spoke with a wave of his hand, and grinned like an excited school boy.  
  
A giggle escaped from Jill, she enjoyed watching her father put on a show of sly and stupid acts.  
  
Gray snapped his eyes on Jill as if to say merely, 'shut up'. Jill obeyed obediently. She didn't want to screw up anything, even though it almost hurt not to tell him to fuck off in response.  
  
"So I'll circle around to the other side of the block and pick my way into the backdoor", Dick said quickly to direct Gray's attention back to the topic.  
  
"Yes, you'll have to sneak over a chain link face though, so don't wear anything that might snag."  
  
"And me? Where do I come in?" Jill interrupted again.  
  
"You'll follow your father in", Gray answered lazily, "then the both of you can split up to cover more ground."  
  
"Not to sound stupid or anything, but...what are we looking for?" Jill asked sheepishly.  
  
"Well it should be in a little blue box, but if not. It's a small, golden emblem with a Celtic tiger engraved on one side, the back is smooth", Dick answered now.  
  
"It costs thousands", Gray pointed out also.  
  
"Uh huh...", Jill began thinking of much better things to find and steal than a Celtic tiger emblem thing, and asked quickly, "why can't you just steal some stuff worth as much as the emblem?"  
  
"Because we need this specific object you stupid girl", Gray snapped finally.  
  
Jill narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists into her jean pockets. Silence came over everyone for a brief moment.  
  
"Do you have the map for the place?" Dick asked with his hand outstretched to Gray.  
  
Gray tossed a rolled up blueprint into Dick's hand before rising, "I really must be leaving now. Erm, business else where. You know, that sort of thing. I really don't have time to answer anymore questions your daughter may have, so answer them for me."  
  
Dick nodded and rose up to shake hands with Gray before watching the other man depart.  
  
"What a major asshole", Jill grumbled as soon as he was out of hearing distance.  
  
"I told you, but do you listen to me anymore?" Dick asked calmly, now looking down at his daughter.  
  
"I'm young, I have to learn my lessons", Jill smiled coyly before kissing Dick's cheek and grabbing his hand into both of her own slender ones, "maybe a quick trip to a certain place will ease things up."  
  
Again, Dick nodded and agreed.  
  
They began to walk back to the car, with blueprints still in hand.  
  
"I still have a bit more to explain to you about why we're robbing this guy. I'll tell you on the way though, don't want to many nosey people over hearing us", Dick spoke wearily as he ran his hand through his hair, causing bits of it to fall out of its slick and into his face. A sign of stress. 


	3. Chapter 3

Note: To answer a lil' girls question. :p The books never directly said that Jill wasn't feminine, but you get the picture when Perry referred to Jill as "gawky" in her teenage years. Thus making her ungirly. But I took it to the next level by completely devouring into it, and using a tad bit of originality. That and the fact that everyone I know (not on the internet) that's read the books all agree that, by the book, Jill's either a dyke or a tomboy of some sort. Don't ask why, I don't know, I just had fun with it. O.o Ok! See now look what you did. :p I always have to have perfect answers to questions, and that's a lot of reading for the poor peoples now! Lol, just joking.  
  
Now for the story. ^_^ And as always, I must have some kind of past remembrance so do note that there will be some in this chapter, along with why Dick is particularly interested in this swindle he and Gray have planned.  
  
  
  
A silence possessed Jill as she sat waiting for her father's voice to bring her back around out of her constant thoughts. She knew she'd done a wrong thing by purposely aggravating Gray earlier. It was too irresistible, and easy to fake stupidity just to annoy someone. Somehow though, Jill suspected that Dick knew her slightly sinster ways too much, for the next thing he said:  
  
"You're a rat sometimes, but anyways. Where exactly do you want to go?"  
  
"I don't really know, I just thought maybe we could hang out", Jill shrugged, "maybe at Waln's."  
  
Leonard Waln, a man quite younger than Dick, had one of those smiles that could bring peace in the middle of a large rumble. He had dazzling eyes as green as the ocean along the outer banks in Virginia that Jill could remember from past visits, and his hair was a neat and frosty blond. All and all he was to die for in appearance. But to top off the sundae with a cherry, he was the most incredible and friendliest human in existence, and Jill secretly held the world's largest crush on him. Not even her own father, who knew her so well, could see it in her cleverly hidden gazes that she fixed on Leonard every moment they spent together.  
  
"Why are we always going to Waln's home? It's like we don't even have our own now", Dick exhaled, "why don't you go visit him on your own time if you're so obsessed, hm?"  
  
"How could you say that? That guy really takes the cake!" Jill argued back.  
  
For a moment Dick stared at nothing but at the road as if in a thoughtful state then at last asked, "where?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You said he takes the cake...Where?" Dick asked again.  
  
"Oh, it's an expression", Jill sighed and began to rub at her temples impatiently.  
  
"It isn't really a good one then, is it?" He dared to look surprised at her answer.  
  
"If you insist. To change the topic if you don't mind, why do you want this emblem thing-a-muh-bobber so bad now?"  
  
"Well, to start it off, back a few years ago, before I'd even started training you to being a great thief, four other men and myself go involved in the biggest hustle a couple of guys could do. We stole some pricey artifacts and other good 'cash crops' of our kind, but there was the Tiger Emblem; that was the most expensive and rarest. You'd either have to be incredibly stupid or incredibly willing to steal something like that. So I suppose our group was a little bit of both, and we managed to nick it too. We all agreed to split the loot, but keep the emblem safe until we could find a somewhat refined pawnshop to buy it at a nice high price, then we'd also split that cash evenly. But the next thing we knew, one of our trusted partners took the emblem and skipped town with it, plus what he already had. That little independent ant happened to be Rodger, and now we're getting our stolen, stolen property back", Dick finished the lovely little tale at last.  
  
'Stolen, stolen property', Jill laughed in her mind at how utterly stupid it sounded, but in a way it really was stolen, stolen. Ha!  
  
"I'm assuming Gray was one of the other guys too, right?" Jill asked first.  
  
"Correct, he was. The other two guys were Jeremiah and Nate", Dick smiled now, probably from a rush of memories now. Jill noted that Dick was very handsome when he truly smiled in happiness.  
  
"So where are Jeremiah and Nate now? Don't they want they're revenge too?"  
  
"Yes and no...They want revenge, but they also think it's a lost game that they can't win back so they'd rather not bother with it. I've tried to convince those two what's best, but only Gray agrees with me now", Dick answered more bitterly now.  
  
"Erm, exactly, where did you get the emblem from in the first place? It couldn't have been just any old place, right?"  
  
"We stole if from a museum of course. One in New York I believe, can't remember the name though. Never really did pay attention to those kind of things. You know what I say, if you can't remember where you stole it, you won't feel the guilt once you read about it in the paper", Dick winked at Jill on the last sentence.  
  
Jill shook her head and smiled to herself. She had to hand it to him, he had a way of making everything seem so easy like that.  
  
The next thing Jill knew when she looked up, there before her was the Waln's house. She couldn't help but not hold in the grin, and excessive joy that was always buried deep down whenever they came by to visit Waln.  
  
"Aw, I thought you didn't want to come here", Jill jeered playfully.  
  
"I didn't say that at all. All I did was ask why we have to be here every other minute in the day", Dick gibed back.  
  
'Lenny...', Jill's heart seemed to cry happily, and her lustful teenage mind cheered in celebration as her and her father walked up to the porch and knocked on the door.  
  
A picture of being held in Leonard's masculine arms, and being touched all over raced through her brain and sent shivers through her nervous system. She quietly thanked the Gods for giving her such a vivid imagination that she could play with.  
  
Then like a miracle spawned by a great warlock, there stood at the front door...Leonard Waln. His infamous smile glittering and his eyes shinning.  
  
"Hiya Valentines!" He greeted happily, "Come in!"  
  
"Hey Waln", Jill greeted casually with her father.  
  
"So Dick told me he's taking you in on some important business now", Waln beamed proudly at Jill in a quick congratulations.  
  
"Yeah, nothing too big really. Just a quick swipe and we're done", Jill answered confidently.  
  
"Or so you hope", he laughed.  
  
His laughter was like music to Jill's ear and all she wanted to do then was to take HIM in, quite literally. But just being able to hang out with him was plenty enough for her. Though her thoughts continued racing on like a plague until soon she didn't even hear her father and Waln's conversation, she just watched intently as she always did.  
  
End of Chapter Note:  
  
Aran: Yay! I managed to get sex involved in the story too! (*little children in the background* HOORAY!) O.o *turns on Barney and Friends for the little children* Anyhoo, I need to get off the computer already, I'm seeing little mice that isn't really there crawling about. O.O Anyways, plz review, now that you have read. 


End file.
